Hans Holzer

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Hans Holzer, (born Jan. 26, 1920, Vienna, Austria—died April 26, 2009, New York, N.Y.), Austrian-born American parapsychologist who was a globetrotting investigator into supernatural phenomena but was perhaps best known for his research pertaining to the house in Amityville, N.Y., where Ronald DeFeo murdered (1974) his entire family; this led to several books on the subject, as well as a succession of films, including The Amityville Horror (1979) and Amityville II: The Possession (1982), which was based on Holzer’s nonfiction work Murder in Amityville (1979). Holzer, a self-proclaimed “scientific investigator of the paranormal,” earned a Ph.D. in parapsychology at the London College of Applied Science and taught the subject at the New York Institute of Technology. He coined the term the other side, which was widely used when referencing the spiritual world. Holzer’s preferred method of communication with spirits was via a medium; he did not rely on electronic gadgetry, such as Geiger counters, to detect supernatural phenomena, but he did use a Polaroid camera. Holzer investigated hundreds of alleged haunted houses and depended upon the testimonies of witnesses to ghostly phenomena. He appeared on dozens of television programs, such as In Search Of, and wrote more than 140 books, including Ghosts I’ve Met (1965), The Great British Ghost Hunt (1975), The Amityville Curse (1981), The Secret of Amityville (1985), and Love Beyond the Grave (1992).

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